Chapter Fourteen

Daria stared into Linda Griffin's tortured face. The older woman stared directly at Daria. Daria felt the lip of the sink pressing against her lower back.

What the hell do I think I'm doing? I'm not a counselor! Granted, I couldn't be much worse than the ones I've had to see. I just didn't want the press conference outside to degenerate into a brawl. I want Mom to nail the mayor to the wall for the crappy job Lawndale's done clearing the streets, and looking for Quinn and her fellow ex- Fashion Club drones. Dad's holding on by the skin of his teeth, and Mom is really scared. And as much as I hate to admit it, I'm sort of worried about my fashionable little red headed twit of a sister myself.

'Do you want to have children, Daria?"

Linda's question caught Daria totally off guard.

(Careful, Morgendorffer, none of your smart remarks, this woman is one step away from either going postal or going ballistic.)

"Its not very high on my list of things to do right this minute."

"Don't. Don't ever have children."

"Mrs. Griffin, I know you're worried about, um, Sandi right now, but..."

"Worried! About that stupid lazy daughter of mine?! I gave up my career for that little tramp!"

"Mrs. Griffin, I'm not your daughters biggest fan, in fact, I don't like her at all. I don't really even know her. But Quinn seems to think she's worth something."

"Quinn, ha! She and that Stacy Rowe have had Sandi eating out of their hands! Ever since Jodie Landon's graduation party, Sandi hasn't had control over anything!"

"Mrs. Griffin, I'm hardly the one to defend society, but Quinn and Stacy aren't really all that bad, and they've been trying hard lately to change. Even Sandi and Tiffany have tried to be better. There is more to life than being in charge of a high school club focused on lipstick and eye shadow!"

'That ungrateful little brat cost me my chance at being a network news anchor! I interviewed Rosalynn Carter, the first Lady of the United States! I was national! Tom and I were going places! Then the station found out I was pregnant! I got demoted to doing backyard parties, and cooking shows!"

"If you hated it that much, why the hell didn't you just get an abortion?!" Daria grated out, yanking her hand out of Linda's crushing grasp.

'Everything is so easy for you, isn't it? Public women couldn't get abortions then, not without a lot of grief! The station was owned by this sanctimonious old coot who went to church every Sunday with his wife, but still had time for visiting his girlfriend on Saturday night! He would have fired me on the spot!"

"Mrs. Griffin, you know what? I don't give a damn about that right now! My sister, your daughter, and two other girls are lost! They could be frozen to death right now! At the least they are tired and cold! They need to be found! Their mothers are outside right now. My mom is worried sick about Quinn. My Dad could have a heart attack because of this!"

"I wouldn't put it past those little slut's to be sitting in a motel room right now!"

"Linda Griffin, my sister is not a slut! If she's doing anything at all like that, I'll be right with you in strangling her! But those four have grown up. Maybe just a little bit, but they have! You know what happened last year? Quinn got a crush on a guy because she liked learning. The tutor your

daughter ignored, got Quinn to love learning, to stop judging people by how they looked, and what they owned! And maybe if you'd have paid a bit more attention to your daughter, this might not even be happening!"

'How dare you blame any of this on me!"

"My dad may be clueless sometimes, and my mom is a rabid workaholic just like you, Griffin! But you know what? They care about their daughters! They worry about us! I certainly did everything I could to get on their nerves, and Quinn wasn't much better! But they keep on trying! I was always so focused on why I didn't seem to get along, I never once thought of how they felt, and the sacrifices they made for their kids!"

Linda was taken aback at Daria's icy defense of her family, but was too far gone to pull back now.

"Sacrifices, what sacrifices?! Your mother has had her Barksdale money behind her her entire life!"

"You know what, Griffin? For a ex-reporter, you sure don't get your facts straight! Mom doesn't get any money from her mother at all! That all goes to aunt Rita, and cousin Erin! Mom and dad make the money they spend. They work hard for every penny of it! Maybe they're comfortably well off, but they'll never be rich! I don't know what's happened to your family, and I don't care! I'm surprised Sandi's not even more screwed up than I already thought she was! "

Daria's mind latched onto Linda's attitude.

"Wait a minute, that's what this is all about isn't it? You think Sandi ran off and did something crazy, and when the police find her, you might get the blame! Just what is going on?" Daria shouted at Linda, her voice rising, "If that screwed up fashion doll daughter of yours decides to end it all, and takes Quinn and the others with her, it will be all your fault!"

Linda hissed back in a rising fury, "You think you understand what a parent goes through, little girl? You don't get it at all! You work and slave your whole life! The people you work with always trying to steal your work, your accounts, your credit! Then the major chance of your life gets thrown away, because you feel all maternal, and want to have a cute little baby! But you know what, Daria, you have to work harder than ever then! And now matter how you try, they never seem to listen to you! Then Tom got worried about not having sons to carry on the family name, so I had Sam and Chris! I had to work harder and harder! But I spent so much time with the boys, I lost all touch with Sandi! I come home late at night, and she's snuck out of the house on a date, or sitting up talking with her friends!"

"And when we do talk, it always turns into a fight! She is like me, don't you think I don't know that?! You have to fight, to keep control of things! But she doesn't understand! She wanted to control things, but wasn't clever enough to do it right! She had all the boys at Lawndale High wrapped around her little finger! Then you and your sister shows up. Prettier than Sandi, and smarter than Sandi! Did you know that Sandi really liked you at first? And she idolized Quinn!

But then Quinn started taking away everything from Sandi, and Sandi had to fight back! But she was never any good at it. Do you know how much Sandi loves Quinn?"

Linda laughed harshly at the look of disbelief on Daria's face

"Not like that! But haven't you always wanted a friend, that you could talk to, share things with, that seemed to know what you were thinking, and always cared? That's what Sandi wanted out of Quinn!"

"Believe it or not, Mrs. Griffin, that's something I do understand. I've had one friend in my entire life like that. I nearly lost her once, because of something stupid I did, and if Sandi thinks that's what she found in Quinn, well, I hope it works out."

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"Mr. Mayor, you have completely failed to have given an explanation as to your lackluster response to this blizzard. Highways are not being cleared, power lines are being downed, the citizens of Lawndale are running out of their basic services!"

Walter Smits quailed under Helens intense questioning. The short portly mayor perspired freely under the bright camera lights.

"Mrs. Morgendorffer, you have to, ah, understand, the sheer, uh, magnitude of this storm!"

"That's why most city government's have emergency plans, Mr. Smits! What about my daughter Quinn, and her friends, Stacy, Tiffany, and Sandi? There has been no word from any of them at all! Four young women in the prime of their life!"

Smits gulped.

"Really, Mrs. Morgendorffer, the police are doing everything they can!"

"I'm sure they are!" Helen said. Nobody missed the emphasis she placed on they."But why are there so few of them?"

"Well, ah, retirements, ah, and budget cuts, you see?"

"What I see is a very few men and women trying to do the impossible! How can they protect this city if you don't find qualified replacements?"

"Well, ah, you know?"

"What I know, Mr. Smits, is that of this cities three snow plows, only one is working right now, because the other two have been stripped for parts! This is indeed an extraordinary storm, I will agree with you on that! But what have you used the money you saved with all these budget cuts for?"

Smits could see the news crews leaning forward, almost wetting their lips. He saw himself as roadkill, with buzzards closing in.

"Because of your lack of preparedness, our little girls might be buried alive, who knows where! We demand action, Mr. Smits!"

"Ah, I've, ah talked to the Governor, about calling out the, ah, um, National Guard. In fact, he should be calling me back right now! Please excuse me!"

Smits walked rapidly out of the lobby, and the accusing glare of TV cameras and distraught mothers. Helen barely restrained herself from going after him.

That little weasel! He'd better call out the National Guard! He's going to need the protection! If anything happens to Quinn because of his stupidity!

Stacy and Tiffany's mother were staring at her in shock.

"Helen," choked Stacy's mother, "do you really think this will help? The mayor might be mad, now?"

"Let him be as mad as he likes! His administration has known all year that this winter was supposed to be bad, and that man did absolutely nothing to prepare the city for it!"

Helen frowned.

"Where's Linda and Daria?"

Natasha Blum-Deckler blinked.

"Ah, I think they are st-ill in the bath-room."

As Helen turned and walked toward it, she thought, So that's where Tiffany got that from!

Helen frowned as she heard the rising voices from behind the bathroom doorand quickened her pace, her heels clacking loudly on the tiled floor. She braced herself, took a deep breath, and opened the door. Linda and Daria glared at each other on either side of the sinks, framing the large mirror. Linda's face was red and flushed, while Daria was white as a sheet. The mirror was curiously blank, and drew Helens attention, in spite of her concern for Daria.

Helen gasped, and pointed as the mirror seemed suddenly to clear, a ghostly white image coming into view. It was the gaunt, haggard looking form of a teenage girl, her belly grotesquely swollen

Her hair was streaked with whiteand she weakly, piteously reached out for help.Daria and Linda turned, staring at the ghastly formWhen its finger touched the surface of the mirror, a fine network of cracks suddenly laced it, and it quietly crumbled into a thousand pieces.

It had been Sandi Griffin.